Celiac disease is a relative common disorder of the gastrointestinal tract caused by an allergy to gluten, a protein commonly found in wheat and other grain products. Like many other diseases, it what we call an autoimmune disorder, a disease in which the body's immune system attacks the person's own normal cells. Treatment of this disease rarely requires any drugs and almost always is helped by changing one's diet to a gluten-free one. The disease is also known as celiac or nontropical sprue, or gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Women (and men) who suffer from celiac disease may have symptoms such as:

abdominal bloating and pain

diarrhea or constipation

weight loss

fatigue

Studies on Celiac disease have also reported higher rates of infertility, miscarriages and menstrual problems among women with the disease, and then once pregnant, higher rates of a number of pregnancy complications such as low birth weight babies. It has even been reported to affects male fertility.

So, does this mean the Celiac disease causes fertility and pregnancy problems? Not so fast. Many of these studies are really too weak and small to draw any real conclusions. Still other studies fail to show that Celiac disease causes any reproductive issues. At this time, issue is far from settled.

For those looking to find a reason for their otherwise unexplained infertility, this may not be for the answer. However, for those who are having trouble getting pregnant and have lots of gastrointestinal symptoms, it may not be a bad idea to ask your doctor about getting tested for Celiac disease.

With stories of 45 year celebrities having babies (and sometimes even twins and triplets) with high techtreatments, most people think that age is not a barrier to successful treatment. When using donor eggs from a young egg donor, that is definitely true. The chances for success with donor egg ivf is excellent, even for women in their late 40's. However that is not the case in women using their own eggs. Pregnancies in women undergoing fertility treatment without the use of a donor over 45 are very unusual. A recent report from Florida describes a 46 year old woman who is reported to be oldest woman to conceive from IVF with her own eggs. Is this a major breakthrough? Not really. The main determinant over whether a fertilized egg will develop into a healthy baby is whether the embryo is genetically abnormal. Genetically normal embryos are common in 25 year olds but pregnancy rates are never 100%. Likewise, the vast majority of 45 year olds' embryos are abnormal, and so the pregnancy rates would be expected to be quite low but not exactly 0%. When confronted with these odds, most couples would chose not to try.